Arts Awareness Blog

Remarkable things happen when you allow yourself to become fully engaged with creating art or performing music. At every level, you learn how little things make big things happen. The arts allow you to experience things from a global perspective and to bring real world meaning to basic knowledge and skills.

As I moved from room to room among the hundreds of music teachers at a recent Music Educators Conference in Arizona, I thought about the tremendous passion and commitment that brought all of these people to this profession—teaching music for a living.

Musical theater is a powerful and popular form of stage performance. Last week I attended performances with music by Stephen Sondheim—a full musical production and an afternoon of his songs from various musical theater works. Many of us experience an emotional reaction to the music created by Sondheim. There’s a fundamental, inspiring humanness in his… Read more »

In the summer, the arts pop up everywhere—you’ll find budget-friendly arts festivals in nearly every community in the United States and throughout the world. They often reflect the arts and cultural scene in the cities, states, and countries where they are located, mixing local talent with acclaimed artists.

When I first started to teach music lessons, I was shocked at how much I learned. I found that the true test of whether I really understood what I was doing as a performer was when I tried to teach it to someone else.

I was recently sitting in the audience watching a wind quintet concert on stage. As the music began, I found my mind wandering back through my own experiences and there I was back in college playing bassoon in the honors wind quintet. We were enjoying our performance, communicating expertly with a nod here and there,… Read more »